Left side of the road

The writings of James Connolly

The Relevance of James Connolly Today

The ‘Troubles’ – 1968-98

Ireland – The Historical Background

No popular movement ‘comes from nowhere’. Injustices in the past, repression and exploitation, aspirations for the future, these all play a part in historic struggles. This is especially the case with the struggle for the independence in Ireland where the fight against British invasion and oppression goes back to just after the Norman invasion of Britain in 1066.

Reaction always seeks to deny any historical context, preferring to denigrate revolutionary forces as irrational and terrorist, having no basis in the society and merely acting as murderous individuals. In Ireland itself Republicans know their history (although some of their leaders seem to have forgotten much of it themselves) so perhaps this page will be more useful for those outside that country but with a wish to understand why the ‘Irish Question’ will not go away.

A selection of the writings of James Connolly, arguably the greatest leader of the Irish people so far, can be found on a separate page.

Handbook for Volunteers of the Irish Republican Army – Notes on Guerrilla Warfare, digital version of a document produced by the IRA General Headquarters in 1956, 33 pages.

Fiery Cross, The Story of Jim Larkin, Joseph Deasy, New Book Publications, Dublin, 1963, 44 pages.

‘In addition to being an outstanding pioneer of Irish trade unionism, he was also a patriot and socialist, who saw far beyond the immediate aims of industrial organisation. He wanted an Ireland completely free of exploitation, where a worker’s hope of a job no longer depended on an employer’s ability to make a profit out of him.’

Trade Unionism in Ireland Today, Anthony Coughlan, reprinted from Irish Democrat, April 1965, Connolly Publications, London, 1965, 8 pages.

Our Own Red Blood, the story of the 1916 Rising, Sean Cronin, 1966, 66 pages.

‘ .. we also believe that in times of war we should act as in war. We despise, utterly despise and loathe, all the mouthings and mouthers who infest Ireland in times of peace, just as we despise and loathe all the cantings about caution and restraint to which the same people treat us in times of war.’ James Connolly, ‘What is Our Programme?’, January 22, 1916.

Labour and the Republican Movement, George Gilmore, Republican Publications, Dublin, 1966, 24 pages.

‘.. as the squeezing out of the Labour leadership from the vanguard of the Independence movement was of such importance in ensuring its defeat, so it would appear that, if there is to be any future for the Irish people as a free people, it must depend upon a return by organised Labour to the politics of Connolly.’

Robert Emmet’s Speech from the Dock, 1803, Irish Book Bureau, Dublin, 196?, 8 pages.

The speech given in Green Street Courthouse on September 19, 1803, after he had been sentenced to death.

History of Ireland (to 1014), Frederick Engels, Irish Communist Organisation, 2nd edition, Dublin, 1970, 68 pages.

‘Engels wished, by using Ireland’s history as an example, to unmask the system and methods of English colonial rule, and to expose its serious effects on the historical fate of both the oppressed and oppressor nations.’ From the German introduction to Engels’s uncompleted ‘History of Ireland’.

The Irish Tragedy, Scotland’s Disgrace, John Maclean, introduction by Harry McShane, John Maclean Society, Glasgow, 1970, 15 pages.

Sworn to be Free, The Complete Book of IRA Jailbreaks 1918-1921, Anvil Books, Tralee, 1971, 207 pages.

The Great Fraud of Ulster, TM Healy, foreword by Dennis Kennedy, Anvil Books, Tralee, 1971, 154 pages.

Imperialism and the Irish Nation, Repsol pamphlet No 9, Republican Education Department, Dublin, 1972, 21 pages.

‘The main conflict which affects the lives and destinies of the Irish people today is that between English imperialism and the Irish nation. The great majority of the Irish people, who make up the Irish nation, are adversely affected by imperialist domination and pressure, as they have been for many years.’ The first words of the pamphlet.

The Historical Basis of Socialism in Ireland, Thomas Brady, Cork Workers Club, Cork, 1972, 14 pages.

This pamphlet was originally published by the Socialist Party of Ireland (SPI). First published in New York in 1919. When he returned from America James Connolly became the National Organiser for the SPI.

Republicanism Part 2, 1922-1966, Repsol pamphlet No 10, Republican Eduction Department, Dublin, 1972, 44 pages.

The Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1922 was hailed at that time as a stepping stone to a Republic. It, in fact, became as time went on, a surer means for Britain to retain her hold on Ireland.

Republicanism Part 2 charts the sellout from 1922 to 1966.

Marx, Engels and Lenin on the Irish Revolution, Ralph Fox, Historical Reprints No 3, Cork Workers Club, Cork, 1974, 40 pages.

‘ .. they considered the Irish Revolution not merely the concern of the Irish people themselves, but because they knew that its success would have immense consequences for the world revolution, for the liberation of all oppressed peoples and classes.’

British Imperialism in Ireland – A Marxist Historical Analysis, Elinor Burns, Historical Reprints No 2, Cork Workers Club, Cork, 1974, 76 pages.

‘The present booklet, analysing as it does the long and bitter record of class antagonism in Ireland, will prove an invaluable guide to the thousands of struggling Irish workers and farmers who, at the moment, find themselves at a loss to explain the forces that oppress them.’ From the March, 1931 Introduction.

Revolutionary Movements of the Past, J De Courcy Ireland, Repsol pamphlet No 4, Republican Education Department, Dublin, 1974, 32 pages.

‘If we accept that the answer to the problems of our time is a socialist society we have to start by discarding the prejudices and the outlook in which we were brought up. … Our history is far too full of heroic failures, and I sometimes think that small injections of insurrectionism have put us in very serious danger of being immune against the development of a genuine mass revolutionary movement.’ From 1st paragraph.

The Irish Question, John Leslie, Historical Reprints No 7, Cork Workers Club, Cork, 1974, 32 pages.

Apart from Karl Marx’s and Frederick Engels’s writings on Ireland, this pamphlet is the first known analysis of the Irish situation written from a Marxist viewpoint.

The Irish Republican Congress, George Gilmore, Historical Reprints No 4, Cork Workers Club, Cork, 1974, 32 pages.

‘We talk of the working class coming into the leadership of the Republican movement without realising that the way to do that is just to do it.’

The Irish Crisis, C. Desmond Greaves, Seven Seas, Berlin, 1974, 278 pages.

No Pasaran, The Story of the Irish Volunteers in the International Brigades in defending the Spanish Republic against International Fascism, 1936-1938, Belfast Executive of Republican Clubs, Belfast, 1975, 44 pages.

The Making of the Irish Revolution, a short analysis, Tomas Mac Giolla, Repsol pamphlet No. 17, Republican Education Department, 1975, 7 pages.

The Struggle of the Unemployed in Belfast October 1932, the Falls and the Shankill Unite, Historical Reprints No 17, Tom Bell, Cork Workers Club, Cork, 1976, 12 pages.

The struggle of the unemployed workers in Belfast, Northern Ireland, including the heroic struggle against the armed police on October 11, contains many lessons on proper methods of work among the unemployed.

Ireland Her Own, an outline history of the Irish struggle, T A Jackson, edited and with an epilogue by C Desmond Greaves, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1976, 513 pages.

James Connolly and the United States, the road to the 1916 Irish Rebellion, Carl and Ann Reeve, Humanities Press, New Jersey, 1978, 321 pages.

The Rise of Papal Power in Ireland, Athol Books, Cork, 1983, 40 pages.

‘ .. the Catholic Church in Ireland is a new Church that was constructed between the 1820s and 1840s as an integral part of the social movement by which the mass of the Gaels sloughed off their Gaelic heritage and entered European civilisation as a new people. The Gaels had not been Roman Catholics in any meaningful sense while they were Gaels. And in the light of this knowledge the great mystery about the Irish dissolves. The mystery was only a misapprehension.’ From the Introduction.

Irregulars, tales of Republican Dissonance, collected by the Hungry Brigade Collective, 2014, 252 pages.

The ‘Troubles’ – 1968-98

Posted on 12/12/2013 by Michael

Child victim of Plastic Bullets

The writings of James Connolly

The Relevance of James Connolly Today

Ireland – The Historical Background

The ‘Troubles’ – 1968-98

On this page I intend to post documents that have been produced since ‘The Troubles’ began again 1968 after just over 10 years of relative quiet in Northern Ireland. They come from a variety of sources, almost all pro-Republican, and I hope it will help to provide background material for those who seek to understand what has happened in the island that ‘has for long been half free, Six counties still under John Bull’s tyranny’.

The Struggle in Ireland, Special Paper, Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation, 1st May 1969, 8 pages.

Irish Liberation Press, Volume 1, Edition 1, 1970, 12 pages.

‘We cannot conceive of a free Ireland with a subject working class; we cannot conceive of a subject working class with a free Ireland.’ James Connolly

British Imperialism Out of Ireland!, Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist), London, 1971, 14 pages.

Report on Special Powers Act of Northern Ireland, originally published 1936, reprinted 1972 by the National Council for Civil Liberties, London, 40 pages.

In the 1970s the IRA Speaks, Repsol pamphlet No. 3, Republican Education Publications, Dublin, 1973.

‘One of the most comprehensive statements released over the past decade on the aims, objectives and methods of the Irish republican Army.’

Sinn Fein, The Workers’ Party, Sectarianism Kills Workers, Birmingham, 1970s?, 4 pages.

The Aims and Objectives of Sinn Fein The Workers’ Party in the early 1970s.

Ireland – One Nation, Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist), London, 1974, 16 pages.

Nuacht Naisiunta, 4th March 1974, Sinn Fein, Dublin, 1975, 4 pages.

The Littlejohn Memorandum, The true story of British and Irish Espionage Services active in Ireland to-day, Clann na hEireann, London, 1975, 20 pages.

The true story of British and Irish espionage services active in Ireland during the 1970s.

Culture and Revolution in Ireland, Eoin O Murchu, Repsol pamphlet No. 2, Republican Education Department, Dublin, 1971, 32 pages.

This paper was prepared for a series of educational conferences organised by the leadership of the Republican Movement. It does not pretend to be a final, definitive statement of the relation between culture and revolution. It is, however, an attempt to initiate discussion on this subject which has so largely been ignored by revolutionary thinkers in Ireland.

Death on the Streets of Derry, Tony Gifford QC, National Council for Civil Liberties, London, 1982, 28 pages.

This pamphlet focuses on 2 incidents in Derry in April 1981 when three young men lost their lives. On April 15 Paul Whitters (aged 15) was shot in the head by a plastic bullet and died 10 days later. On April 19th, Easter Sunday, Gary English (19) and James brown (18) were run over and killed by a Land Rover driven by a Lance Corporal in the British Army.

What Happened in Derry, Eamonn McCann, Socialist Worker, London, 1972, 16 pages.

A Trotskyite pamphlet about ‘Bloody Sunday’ (January 30th 1972) but useful in that it was written very soon after the event and therefore contains useful historical information.

The H Blocks, An indictment of British prison policy in the North of Ireland, Information on Ireland, Nottingham, 1981, 32 pages.

The British Government’s attempt to criminalise Republican activists.

They Shoot Children, The use of rubber and plastic bullets in the North of Ireland, Information on Ireland, Nottingham, 1982, 40 pages.

The use of rubber and plastic bullets by the British Army in Northern Ireland and the casualties suffered by the people in the Republican areas.

Plastic Bullets, Plastic Government, Deaths and Injuries by Plastic Bullets, Aug 1981 – Oct 1982, Denis Faul and Raymond Murray, International Tribunal, Belfast, 1982, 68 pages.

More information on the devastating effects of the use of ‘non-lethal’ plastic and rubber bullets against the Republican population of Northern Ireland.

The British Media and Ireland, Truth – the first casualty, Campaign for Free Speech on Ireland, London, 198?, 56 pages.

If you don’t know what is happening in Ireland you must have been watching British television, listening to British radio and reading the British press.

Ireland, Voices for Withdrawal, Information on Ireland, London, 1980?, 69 pages.

‘The moment the very name of Ireland is mentioned, the English seem to bid adieu to common feeling, common prudence and common sense, and to act with the barbarity of tyrants and the fatuity of idiots.’ Sydney Smith (1771-1845)

British Soldiers Speak Out on Ireland, Information on Ireland, London, 1980?, 32 pages.

In India and in Ireland

He’s held the people down,

While the robber English Gentlemen

Took pound and penny and crown

Belfast Bulletin No 8, The Churches in Ireland, Belfast Workers’ Research Unit, Belfast, Spring 1980, 64 pages.

Ireland, North and South, is one of the most religious countries in the world – perhaps the most religious country in the Western Christian world. And not only is it religious, but its own peculiar forms of Catholicism and Protestantism are among the most insular, fundamentalist and reactionary in existence.

Belfast Bulletin No 10, The Law in Northern Ireland, Belfast Workers’ Research Unit, Belfast, Spring 1982, 88 pages.

‘The law is the embodiment of the interests of various groups in society, the most influential one by far being the ruling class. Other groups in society, such as the working class, can struggle and have struggled against the powerful …. But the struggle of such groups to protect and advance their interests is a difficult and constant one.’

Cormac Strikes Back, Resistance cartoons from the North of Ireland, Information on Ireland, London, 1982, 116 pages.

The struggle for independence in Northern Ireland depicted in cartoons.

The Writings of Bobby Sands, Sein Fein, Dublin, 1981, 40 pages.

A collection of prison writings by H-block hunger striker Bobby Sands, IRA Volunteer and Westminster MP, with an introduction by fellow Republican Gerry Adams.

Falls Memories, Gerry Adams, Brandon, Dingle, 1982, 156 pages.

The Writings of James Connolly

Posted on 02/09/2013 by Michael

James Connolly – Irish Citizen’s Army

The Relevance of James Connolly Today

The ‘Troubles’ – 1968-98

Ireland – The Historical Background

The Writings of James Connolly

James Connolly was, without a shadow of a doubt, the greatest Irish Republican and Socialist leader – but he was born in Edinburgh. Not too much of a surprise when you realise that due to the conditions under which Irish workers were forced to live under the rule of the British that running away was preferable to staying and fighting. Connolly’s parents left, he returned to take the fight to the British Imperialists.

Unlike most of the leaders that preceded him, and most that have come since, he understood that the only way that the Irish would be truly free was when the working class and peasantry took control of their own country, and not allowing Irish exploiters to take the place of the British variety. His adoption of the ideas of Marxism make him stand out in Irish Republican history. He realised that national liberation for the majority meant nothing if it did not come, at the same time, with their freedom from capitalist exploitation.

He also understood that if they remained unarmed the working class would always face defeat from a ‘armed to the teeth’ occupation force. One of his most important achievements was the formation of the Irish Citizen’s Army, an armed (although initially not with fire arms) and organised group of men who defended workers in the 1913 Great Dublin Lock Out. It was from this organisation that the Irish Republican Army (the IRA) evolved – though too often without the same ideological basis.

James Connolly also stands as one of the few who realised that the war of the capitalists, that sent millions to the slaughter fields of the First World War, was yet another ‘game’ of capitalism and imperialism and which true working class leaders should shun like the plague. Although the so-called working class leaders and parties of the Second Socialist International, had declared that they would not call upon their respective working classes to fight in an imperialist war (in The Stuttgart Resolution of 1907 and The Balse Manifesto of 1912) they almost all adopted nationalistic and jingoistic stances once war was declared in 1914 – including the British Labour Party. The two international leaders who stood on principal at this moment of decision were Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (who later led the Russian working class and peasantry to victory in the 1917 October Revolution) and James Connolly.

Despite this seeming understanding of revolutionary reality of the early part of the 20th century Connolly ended up in the futile and doomed to failure Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916. Whereas Lenin had learnt from the past Connolly still had aspects of Blanqui‘s (the 19th century French revolutionary) ‘small group who will stir the rest of the population’ mentality. They were isolated by the much more organised British Imperialist forces, even at a time when they were involved in the biggest war (at that time) in world history on the other side of the English Channel. In less than a week the uprising was crushed and 12 days later Connolly was shot by firing squad by the vengeful British.

In a chair!

Connolly had been wounded in the ankle and was unable to stand so the arrogant British provided him with a seat so he wouldn’t be inconvenienced. This attitude that the British displayed in Ireland, that they had displayed another part of the world before and since, angered the Irish working class and although the Rising was not the most astute of political moves it did result in a realisation that the British had only total contempt for the Irish and their sensibilities.

This was immortalised in a verse of the 1957 song by Dominic Behan, the Patriot Game

They told me how Connolly was shot in his chair,
His wounds from the fighting all bloody and bare.
His fine body twisted, all battered and lame
They soon made me part of the patriot game.

It’s unfortunate that revolutionary movements around the world have since made similar mistakes in ensuring the success of a proletarian revolution, perhaps most notably the idea of the ‘foco’ followed by Che Guevara in Bolivia in the late 1960s.

Nonetheless Connolly left a legacy in his writings that could be useful for revolutionaries in Ireland and other parts of the world. For that reason as many as possible are reproduced here.

Erin’s Hope – the end and the means, and The New Evangel, with an introduction by Joseph Deasy, New Book Publications, Dublin, 1968, 44 pages.

Erin’s Hope is Connolly’s first published pamphlet and is a strong exposition of the Socialist case published in 1897.

The New Evangel is a collection of short essays published in 1901.

The axe to the root and Old Wine in New Bottles, Repsol pamphlet No. 14, Republican Education Publications, Dublin, 1973?, 52 pages.

The Axe to the Root and Old Wine in New Bottles are two articles where Connolly stresses the need for solidarity, militancy and organisation in the work of Trade Unions in the class struggle.

Labour in Irish History, New Books Publications, Dublin, 1967, 180 pages.

Labour in Irish History is not an academic tract but is based upon well researched facts. Here Connolly passionately argues that for the Irish working class to know where they are going in the future they should be aware of their past.

Socialism Made Easy, Labour party Publications, Dublin, 1972, 64 pages.

Contains two articles:

Workshop Talks takes the form of statements made by a typical sceptical worker and Connolly’s refutations.

In Political Action of Labour argues for the necessity of industrial and political unity in any trade union or class struggle.

The Re-Conquest of Ireland, New Books Publications, Dublin, 1968, 92 pages.

The Re-Conquest of Ireland develops the ideas of Labour in Irish History showing that the domination of Ireland by imperialism was political, economic and social.

Workshop Talks, The Meaning of Socialism, Repsol pamphlet No. 1, Republican Education Publications, Dublin, 1973?, 32 pages.

Workshop Talks takes the form of statements made by a typical sceptical worker and Connolly’s refutations.

Revolutionary Warfare, New Books Publications, Dublin, 1968, 44 pages.

In Revolutionary Warfare Connolly analyses insurrections, revolutions and uprisings in the previous 150 years, or so, with the argument that the Irish Citizen’s Army should develop from a defensive to an offensive force of the working class.

Labour Nationality and Religion, New Books Publications, Dublin, 1969, 68 pages.

Being a discussion of the Lenten Discourses against Socialism delivered by Father Kane, S.J., in Gardiner Street Church, Dublin, 1910.

The James Connolly Songbook, Cork Workers’ Club, Cork, 1973?, 38 pages.

‘No revolutionary movement is complete without its poetical expression. If such a movement has caught hold of the imagination of the masses, they will seek a vent in song for aspirations, the fears and hopes, the loves and hatreds engendered by the struggle.’ James Connolly.